Ez living/ Ex Volex Castlebar

irlforum

Hi,
I'm a "how stuff works" soul you might say and was really enthused today looking around the ex Volex plant in Castlebar - looking at the engineering into the building and the ex vacumn tubes if that's what they are.

Does anybody have an info on Volex and what they did there and where the operations are gone now?

Very curious to know.

Thanks.

RMDrive

They were a cabling and wire harness company. Very low tech stuff and indeed that's manufacturing is now in Poland. Volex still have an engineering and admin presence in that building.

irlforum

RMDrive wrote: »

They were a cabling and wire harness company. Very low tech stuff and indeed that's manufacturing is now in Poland. Volex still have an engineering and admin presence in that building.

Thanks for the reply. I knew that they made those kind of products alright - did they make their whole product range there though? I wonder where they would have shipped their products to and how then?

Also how long were they here for (manufacturing) and do you know what would have been the deciding factor in them setting up business in Castlebar and of moving aswell.

Are there current engineers involved in any R&D in Castlebar?

Sorry about all the questions.

finisklin

This might help.....

http://archives.tcm.ie/westernpeople/2003/07/23/story14700.asp

http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0420/jobs.html

http://www.castlebar.ie/news/article_95.shtml

RMDrive

irlforum wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I knew that they made those kind of products alright - did they make their whole product range there though? I wonder where they would have shipped their products to and how then?

Also how long were they here for (manufacturing) and do you know what would have been the deciding factor in them setting up business in Castlebar and of moving aswell.

Are there current engineers involved in any R&D in Castlebar?

Sorry about all the questions.

The main business there was cabling systems for mobile phone base stations. Powercords (check the plug on your computer, it may very well be a Volex one) were made in Asia.

The company used to be called Cable Products Ireland before it was bought out by Volex. I don't know when it was formed. In the 80's I think but not sure.

There's engineers based in Cbar still but there's no R&D happening.

Why the interest can I ask?

irlforum

RMDrive wrote: »

The main business there was cabling systems for mobile phone base stations. Powercords (check the plug on your computer, it may very well be a Volex one) were made in Asia.

The company used to be called Cable Products Ireland before it was bought out by Volex. I don't know when it was formed. In the 80's I think but not sure.

There's engineers based in Cbar still but there's no R&D happening.

Why the interest can I ask?

Yeah I've noticed a few laptops with Volex plugs before. That's very interesting that they made cabling for mobile phone base stations - cabling for the antenna systems on high masts is it?

Well my interest really is due to a general interest in all technology I suppose and I find interest in technology companies based out of Ireland also. I work in a technical field myself. Nice to be aware of what's going on around.

It was abit sad to get a sense of a manufacturing plant that's been stripped while walking around ez living today and cool to see the engineering and the design in the building itself. I never thought to go into motorworld to see the rest of the building.

You seem to know a good bit about the setup yourself?

beetlefan

bit of a sad history to this building, caseys garage motorworld was next door but that is gone bust, they bought the factory from volex, so the place does not have good luck.